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Secret No. 4: Language Proficiency
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Writing begins with language. To be able to express yourself and your point of view freely, you should have a good command of the language. English, like other languages, is systematically organised by its grammar. Good understanding and use of grammar helps you to write your essay more effectively, as it helps to develop more confident and versatile language use.
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As ESL (English as Second Language) learners, most of you may have some writing skills. Unfortunately, in some cases, it is quite poor even at the sentence level. Run-on sentences and fragments (incomplete sentences) will be very common in your essay. Thus, you need to go back to sentence level, and begin to learn the basic structure before you could correct your errors. Once a good foundation is built, you can move on to basic paragraph writing and on to essay.
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Fragments (incomplete sentences) and run-on sentences prevent clear presentation of ideas. You can fix sentence fragments by…

Secret No. 3: Keep Learning and Practicing
Writing is a skill that you can learn. Good writing skill is not a natural gift. You were not born with it. You really have to learn to write well.
There are hundreds of books on all aspects of writing, from the nuts and bolts of grammar and punctuation, to writing in specific genres. You can also find advice from blogs and articles on the internet. However, the best way to learn is always to find a good teacher and learn from him/her.
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Apart from learning about writing, you need to practice. That means writing regularly. As you write more, your essays will get better.
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Madam Fatimi Estar
English as 2nd Language Guru

Secret No. 2: Observation
Writing is about expressing your ideas in written form, on paper or online. To be able to write easily on a certain topic, you need to have enough information regarding that particular topic. For instance, if you want to write about Datuk Lee Chong Wei, you need to know about his background, his experiences, his achievements and so on.
Apart from reading, another way to get a lot of information about anything is through observation. You may learn much from life around you--what you see and hear and observe for yourselves. For example, your observation on incidents that occur in your neighbourhood or in the country can provide you with authentic ideas which are very helpful every time you try to write your essay.
Listen to people's conversation. Get people to talk to you about the things they know. Discuss subjects that interest you with your friends. All these will help to enrich your mind with ideas and knowledge, which is essential for you in writing yo…

Secret No. 1: Reading
One of the most common problems faced by Malaysian students when it comes to essay writing is lack of ideas. Normally, when teachers ask them to write an essay, they would respond like this; "I don't know what to write la teacher...no idea." Sounds familiar?
Well...is that true? It depends on what you have stored in your brain. Is it empty? Is it full of rubbish? Or, is it full of useful information?
Writing is about expressing your ideas in written form, on paper or online. To be able to write easily on a certain topic, we need to have enough information regarding that particular topic. For example, if we want to write about Datuk Lee Chong Wei, we need to know about his background, his experiences, his achievements and so on.
One way to get a lot of information about anything is through reading. When you read widely, you are storing your mind with a large variety of facts, thoughts and general information. So, when you write your essay, you can ju…